Name: Michael Iannini

Title: Author and Developer of Leaders

Organisation: PD Academia

"Michael Iannini is an Author, ACAMIS’s Leadership Development Facilitator, Board Member for Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN), Co-founder of PeerSphere, and a Council of International School’s (CIS) Affiliated Consultant with the following areas of expertise:

• Appraisal and Professional Development

• Leadership Training

• School Governance

• Strategic Planning

Michael's first book, Hidden in Plain Site: Realizing the Full Potential of Middle Leaders, is the foundation for all his leadership development work. Since writing this book he launched www.peer-sphere.com, where he regularly engages with a variety of school leaders in different peer learning communities. "

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Educational Leadership!

I hope Michael's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as an Educational Leader?

I feel this quote by Jennifer Abrams speaks to the heart of the problems that most educational leaders have: "I had a credential in how to work with kids through the subject I was teaching. I did not have a credential in how to work with adults." Unlike companies, schools afford teachers convenient silos (classrooms) that they can shield themselves from others.

Provided they are attending to the non-negotiables of their job, it can be very difficult to ask anything more of them in the way of professional learning and collaboration with their peers. To this point, the most difficult problem I have had is getting buy in from teachers to engage in professional development and collaborative initiatives that are not directly related to their subject or contractual obligations.

2. How did you become an Educational Leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Frustration lead to my desire to lead. Early in my career I felt that I and my students had no teaching and learning agency. I believed there was a better way for me to teach and for my students to evidence learning. My initial attempts to address this frustration were rebuffed by leadership, so I began to meet with various teachers, students, parents and other leaders, both in my school and from other schools, to better understand their perspective related to my concerns. Although, I wasn't able to effect immediate change at my school, it broadened my perspective about teaching and learning immensely and helped me to develop very valuable professional relationships that later helped to get into my first leadership role.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

As a leader, most of my time is focused on people and relationships, therefore it is vital that I attend to all my administrative work outside the main working window of others. From 09:00 to 16:00 I learned quickly that I can't rely on having large chunks of time for time consuming administrative tasks and individual planning, so this work has to be done before 09:00 or after 16:00. Work-Life Balance is also incredibly important to me, especially with a young family, so it is vital that my days start with exercise and finish with me being able to have dinner with my family. I also travel a lot, but I always make sure I am home on Sundays.

4. What's a recent lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of as an Educational Leader?

Showing Genuine Appreciation. This has been the most important lesson I have learned during and since the pandemic. I wrote about it in this blog post: https://middleleader.com/articles/5-ways-to-give-genuine-appreciation

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your journey as an Educational Leader so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted you?

Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Group. I think the greatest lesson I took from this book was to not let my own assumptions limit what I can and should do for others. It is incredibly important to test our assumptions before we take action, especially when relationships are at stake.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young educator who aspires to be an Educational Leader, what would you say to them?

It takes a leader to develop leaders. You have to be passionate about developing the potential and capacity of others to lead effectively. If an initiative, project or responsibility can't be sustained without your involvement then you aren't leading, you are just managing.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as an Educational Leader, so far?

In my last school leadership role, prior to becoming a leadership facilitator and author, I worked with parents from my Early Years Division to help extend language learning acquisition opportunities outside of the school day. This required getting buy-in from teachers and parents to communicate and coordinate more efficiently and effectively to support student learning outside of our school, which required additional work by both stakeholders. The key to this initiatives success was to 1) Keep it simple for teachers and parents, 2) Ensure it was fun for parents and students, and 3) evidence learning as often and in as many ways as possible to keep teachers, parents and students motivated and engaged.